Please Post WWS assignments here!

[Halcyon]

This is my incredibly reluctant 11yo son:

 

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. Mars’ diameter is 4,200 miles which is almost half of Earth’s diameter. The Martian year is longer than Earth’s year, which means it takes it longer to orbit the sun. The Martian year is 686 days long. The Martian day is twenty-four hours, thirty-seven minutes long, not much longer than Earth’s day. The color is orange-red with blue-gray markings. There are clouds of reddish dust on the surface because of iron oxide. The polar caps are white. Mars has two moons, Phobos and Diemos. Phobos rises in the west and sets in the east while Diemos rises in the east and sets in the west. They do not collide because Diemos sets 2.7 days later than Phobos.

There’s no liquid water on Mars because the atmospheric pressure is too low. The north polar cap is made of water and ice and is about two kilometers thick whereas the south polar cap is covered by carbon dioxide ice and is about eight meters thick. There are two large craters called Hellas and Argyre which were made by meteors hitting Mars. They are both in the Southern Hemisphere. Hellas is three miles deep and 1,400 miles across. There are shield volcanos in the Northern Hemisphere. Shield volcanoes are made by layers of lava building up over time. There are four huge volcanoes reaching a height of eighteen miles. The biggest volcano is called Olympus Mons and is visible from Earth as a dark spot on Mars.

The core is most likely made of iron sulfide which is a heavy combination of iron and sulpher and could be partially liquid. The mantle is made of silicate and is lighter than the core. The crust ranges from thirty-one miles to seventy-seven in thickness and the soil is made up of magnesium, sodium, potassium, and chloride.

 

 

I told him that it was good but I'd love some feedback from someone other than his mom.

 

TO me, looks good. Did he skip the first person part? I think that will make it more "pow!" and interesting, and that was the most fun part for my 10 year old to write. I also think he might "focus" his paper on one or two aspects of Mars (I think SWB might mention this, although I have yet to look in the teacher guide for this week). Keep it up!

[Halcyon]

I know my DS 14 can write better than this. But, this is want was acceptable in his ps class. This sample was done in late Feb. It is a free writing assignment of 4 minutes with the given topic "I think the legal driving age should be....."

 

DS14 response just as he wrote it:

 

" I think the leigal driving age should be lower, to the age 13 because some people Can drive at that age and some cant and I wanna drive Places and I allready have a vehical and I wanna drive and not have to listen to my mom wying about how loud the music is or how Fast Im going."

 

WHERE am I supposed to start?? Spelling? Grammar? Mechanics? Wow....just wow :confused: This will be our first year of hs'ing and I will also have an upcoming 7th grader who cannot do any better. :bigear:

 

 

Grammar, spelling and basic writing. I would use WWE3 to start, with a fair amount of copywork. I would focus on writing LESS, but writing WELL. Each sentence he writes should have proper grammar, spelling and punctuation. Worry about length and content later on. Get the basics down. Also, Daily Editing by Evan Moor (I would start at the 4th grade level) would be very useful. Good luck!!

[Halcyon]

Hydrothermal Vents and Creatures That Live in Them

 

A deep ocean hydrothermal vent is a fissure between tectonic plates on the ocean floor where water shoots out at high temperatures. Scientists hypothesized that these rifts existed, although no such rift had been discovered before 1977.

 

In 1976 scientists sent unmanned craft down into the Galapagos Rift. These craft fetched water which had strange mineral content. As a result an expedition was launched in 1977. A manned submarine dove down into the rift to a depth of 2500 meters. They discovered hot springs in the ocean floor which were actually hydrothermal vents. Scientists called the vents "lush oases in a sunless desert...a phenomenon totally new to science."

 

As I dive down into the ocean deep, I splash and feel the cold water washing over me. Now I will endeavor to search for some hydrothermal vent creatures. First, I see some giant mussels! I observe their shells are yellow, and they feel rough like stone. I understand their food is bacteria they get from the seawater. The next species I encounter is the giant clam. Freaky! Now these have white shells and red flesh, the cause of which is their oxygen rich flesh. I measure one of these monstrosities, and it is a whopping foot long! I move on to the white crab. These are the predators of the giant mussels, but they also eat tube worm stalks. Tube worms have white stalks protruding from the ground and red plumes filled with a substance called hemoglobin. Sometimes they can grow very long. They only get energy from the bacteria inside of them. They have no mouths or digestive systems. Now that I have seen some of these vents and creatures and their habitats, I will return to the surface, for I am quite out of oxygen!

 

 

 

I really enjoyed this! We're doing this next so it's nice to see your child's approach. Looks like he had fun with it ;)

[Halcyon]

Week 15 Day 4

 

This was a very challenging assignment for my DS but I am so proud of his hard work.

 

The Discovery of Deep Ocean Hydrothermal Vents

by L.

9/7/12

 

In gaps or cracks in the ocean floor, between rock plates, exist deep-ocean hydrothermal vents. As water enters the gap, it contacts the magma, overheats, and rockets out of the vents at a temperature between 212 and 570 degrees F! Black smokers are one kind of deep-ocean hydrothermal vent. They spew out black sulfides hotter than 662 degrees F and are tall like a king's scepter. When the burning hot magma touches the freezing cold water, black sulfides rain out of the black smokers. Giant, yellow-shelled mussels cover the sea floor and filter bacteria out of the sea water. Giant, 1-foot clams with red flesh and white shells lay along the bottom of the sea floor surrounded by white crabs. The white crabs chew on tube worm stalks and chomp on giant mussels.

 

Imagine you are deep, deep, deep under water and using your underwater flashlight, you see a group of tube worms drifting around you like noodles in a pot of boiling water. As you approach one tube worm, you see blood in the red plumes at the top but no mouth! Energy-producing bacteria live inside the 8-foot long tube worms.

 

When plates under the ocean shift, magma frequently erupts, and scientists predicted that hot spots would appear on the ocean floor. An expedition in 1975 called FAMOUS (French-American Mid-Ocean Undersea Study) was led by a group of French and American researchers. They searched for hydrothermal vents in the Atlantic Ocean with a submarine that dove into the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (a boundary between two tectonic plates in the Atlantic Ocean). Unfortunately, no hydrothermal vents were discovered. One year later, unmanned crafts were sent to the Galapagos Rift, located on a ridge 250 miles from the Galapagos Islands and where volcanic activity is common. Samples of water, which later were found to contain strange content, were brought back to be studied. Yet another expedition in 1977, sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, included French and American researchers and was led by Robert Ballard. These scientists used a 25-foot long submarine designed for deep ocean use named ALVIN. Mr. Ballard describes the sea floor in breathtaking, awestruck terms.

 

“Suddenly, our floodlights revealed a swaying field of orange pink dandelions, their puffy heads pulsing with fine webs of filaments. The lumped mounds of pillow lava were thick with jutting, chalk-white clam shells, some of them a foot in length.†(From Explorations by Robert Ballard, 1996), p. 190

 

The submarine dove down 2,500 feet and discovered hot springs in the ocean floor. Other scientists on the expedition, John Carliss and John Edmund, recount their experience:

 

“Shimmering water streams up past giant tube worms, never before seen by man. A crab scuttles over lava encrusted with limpets, while a pink fish basks in the warmth.†(From Ocean: An Illustrated Atlas, p. 158.)

 

The ocean floor, overflowing with small and large sea creatures, still holds mysteries waiting to be discovered.

[Paula in PA]

This is the 1st draft.

 

Rikki-tikki-tavi was found and adopted. He liked his family very much and wanted to protect them, especially the little boy, Teddy. Once he found out there were cobras in the garden, he wished to kill them because they meant to hurt the other creatures and his family. He helped the big man kill the male cobra, Nag, in the bathroom. Afterwards, he destroyed the cobras’ eggs, except for one. He found out before destroying the one egg that the female cobra, Nagina, went into the house to kill the humans. Rikki-tikki-tavi rushed into the house to stop her and used the egg as a diversion. Nagina got the egg back and hurried back into her den. Rikki-tikki followed her in and killed her and the egg.

Rikki-tikki-tavi wants to kill the snakes and protect his newly claimed family and the child, Teddy. Rikki wants to do that because he cares about his family. Rikki is a brave and loyal creature but he can be a little bit too proud and reckless. Nag and Nagina want to kill the people and get Rikki out of the way so that they can have the garden back for themselves and their babies.

When Rikki heard Nag and Nagina discuss killing the big man, he waited until Nag came into the bathroom to attack him. Rikki grabbed onto Nag’s hood while the big man shot him. Afterwards, Rikki destroyed all of Nagina’s eggs except for one. Before he could destroy it, he heard that Nagina was going after the family in revenge for Nag’s death. Rikki went into the kitchen with the egg and saved Teddy using the egg as a distraction. Nagina caught the egg and hurried back to her den, but Rikki followed her in and killed her and her remaining egg.

[runbikeswim]

Week 5, Day 1. DS just turned 13, 7th grade. First yr HSing, and I am a novice at grading writing. Input appreciated!

 

In 356 BC, one of the bravest men in history was born to Phillip II, King of Macedonia and Olympia, his wife. Alexander began showing his courage at age 10, when Phillip II set out to buy a horse. Bucephalus, an unmanageable horse, caught Alexander's eye. Alexander promised his father he would buy it if he couldn't ride it, but his father had to buy it if he could ride it. Shortly after examining the horse, Alexander decided Bucephalus was afraid of his own shadow so, without fear, he hoisted himself up, turned the horse around , and rode Bucephalus into the sun. From 13 years old to 16, Alexander was taught by Aristotle, the greatest philosopher of the time. Aristotle created Alexander's main thirst for history, medicine, philosophy and much more. Years later, in 339 BC, fearless Alexander set off with his father to claim victory in the Battle of Chaerona. After some time, Phillip II was assassinated by Paulanias, his own bodyguard. This tragedy had minor effects on Alexander's thirst of the throne. At 20 years old he climbed to the throne and had all threats of his reign executed. Immediately, Greek cities began to rebel because of what they thought of Alexander. He quickly conquered the cities back. Even though Alexander was young, nothing stopped him from persisting on and conquering a vast amount of land.

 

 

Do you think he is much below grade level? Do you think WWS will give the structure and practice he needs for improvement?

 

Thank you.

Edited September 17, 2012 by runbikeswim
a typo

[PeterPan]

nt

Edited December 24, 2013 by OhElizabeth

[bgktmom]

Week 5 day 1. DS 11 (almost 12) 6th grade VERY reluctant writer. He has used WWE 2&3 in the past. Posted just as written:

 

 

Alexander the Great’s Invasions

 

Alexander the Great had many invasions. His first was in Persia in 334BC. Alexander traveled to the city of Gourdium. While there he was told that whoever untied the Gordian Knot would conquer the world. As soon as he heard this he went over and instead of untying it he cut it. Then he defeated the Persian ruler Darius. Not long after Darius fled leaving his family behind. Alexander found Darius’s family and treated them with respect. Alexander also laid siege in Egypt in 332BC. He defeated Egypt and announced himself king. While there he founded Alexandria. Later on he defeated Darius for a second time and proclaimed himself King of Persia. Alexander’s last attack was in India in 326BC. He crossed the Indus River and fought the Indian ruler Porus and a pack of elephants. Alexander’s men revolted and refused to go on. Alexander was outraged and sucluded himself inside his tent. Eventually Alexander agreed to go home.

 

I want to be able to give him some positive feedback on this assignment to boost his confidence in writing some, as well as point out how it could have been done better/differently. I'm having a tough time knowing what to say and how much/little to correct.

 

Thanks for any input!

[Catherine]

Ds 11, grade 6. His writing is uneven, and this is an unedited. The one problem that crops up again and again is that he writes or says things that are not in the original notes! Or are completely incorrect. So here goes:

 

In the eighteenth century, smallpox was so deadly that forty million people died. People with smallpox were quarantined in "smallpox houses." Sometimes doctors gave patients "small" doses of the virus because you could only get it once, but often the patients died. One time, this happened to Edward Jenner, but he didn't die. Edward decided to study medicine so he could help end smallpox. He noticed that fewer milkmaids got smallpox instead, they got cowpox. Edward studied the similarities of cowpox and smallpox, -found two types of cowpox, and discovered that one type could cure smallpox. He tested this on 24 different people, and it still worked, but he didn't know why. Edward tried to publish his findings, but the government refused. Finally the government accepted to the vaccine, and 12,000 people were vaccinated. The nuber of deaths per year dropped down to 600.

 

I don't even know where to start. For one thing, he includes inaccurate information that is not in the notes! There are no paragraphs, uses first name of the scientist, it's too short, etc. He has always struggled with just "not getting it" in so many subjects and this kind of shows that problem-he is bright enough, has a good vocabulary, is pretty hard working, but how can he just not understand that only information included in the notes should be in his composition??

 

Then again, he couldn't correctly spell his own last name until he was 9, so I guess things could be much worse.

[Cosmos]

I don't even know where to start. For one thing, he includes inaccurate information that is not in the notes! There are no paragraphs, uses first name of the scientist, it's too short, etc. He has always struggled with just "not getting it" in so many subjects and this kind of shows that problem-he is bright enough, has a good vocabulary, is pretty hard working, but how can he just not understand that only information included in the notes should be in his composition??

 

 

How closely are you working with your son? I found it necessary when beginning WWS to check each step of his work very carefully along the way and sometimes even work right there beside him. It was very demoralizing for him one time when his rough draft did not fit the requirements at all, and he had to start over again. So we both agreed to be more careful so that that wouldn't happen again.

 

That said, I don't think this is bad at all for a first draft.

 

I find it helpful to look at each aspect of the writing separately. It's very easy for me to look at a piece of writing with many punctuation mistakes and conclude that it's a complete failure when really it just needs some proof-reading. I try to mentally evaluate each aspect on its own: content, organization, style, and conventions.

 

With WWS the content is the most straight-forward because it's laid out for you right there in the book. "Organization" is where I consider the order in which the content is arranged and how well it is connected (time words, for example, in this piece). "Style" is subjective, of course, but I look at things like varied sentence structure and use of strong verbs. Finally, "conventions" covers all the rules: spelling, grammar, capitalization, etc.

 

With my son I choose carefully what to work on in revision. Too much correction and he will become discouraged and not learn anything from it. I try to pick just a few items to focus on each time we revise.

 

In the eighteenth century, smallpox was so deadly that forty million people died. People with smallpox were quarantined in "smallpox houses." Sometimes doctors gave patients "small" doses of the virus because you could only get it once, but often the patients died. One time, this happened to Edward Jenner, but he didn't die. Edward decided to study medicine so he could help end smallpox. He noticed that fewer milkmaids got smallpox instead, they got cowpox. Edward studied the similarities of cowpox and smallpox, -found two types of cowpox, and discovered that one type could cure smallpox. He tested this on 24 different people, and it still worked, but he didn't know why. Edward tried to publish his findings, but the government refused. Finally the government accepted to the vaccine, and 12,000 people were vaccinated. The nuber of deaths per year dropped down to 600.

If this were my son's writing, here are some of the things I would think about addressing and probably not all in one day.

 

Content: You mentioned inaccuracies in his writing. I looked over the notes from this lesson, and it all looks right to me except for this sentence:

Edward decided to study medicine so he could help end smallpox.

That isn't mentioned in the notes. I would ask where he found that information. Maybe he's read it elsewhere, in which case he can certainly include it in the paper. Also, the notes don't use the word "virus", which was unknown in Jenner's time (I think?). The other content is fine, in my opinion. The paper overall is a bit short, but I think that's from his style of writing rather than from lack of content.

 

Organization: This proceeds in chronological order, so that's good. The paper requirements asked for a background paragraph separate from the narrative, so I would point that out. The narrative itself can be one or several paragraphs, so that part is fine. He did use some time words ("finally" and "one time"), but I find the narrative to be lacking in coherence. I might select one or two spots to work on making a smoother transition, such as this one:

Edward decided to study medicine so he could help end smallpox. He noticed that fewer milkmaids got smallpox instead, they got cowpox.

You could lead him to see that it's a very abrupt change from "deciding to study medicine" to "noticing milkmaids". A lot happened in between there, didn't it? I do this with some humor with my son. I'll read along and say, "Oh, so he's decided to study medicine. That's nice, I wonder what's going to happen next. Let's see, he noticed some milkmaids. Wait, what??" You can help him see that he needs to set the reader into a new time frame by saying something like, "In later life, he was practicing medicine in his hometown when he noticed . . ."

 

Style: I probably wouldn't work on this yet, but if I did I'd look at this sentence

Edward studied the similarities of cowpox and smallpox, -found two types of cowpox, and discovered that one type could cure smallpox.

I'd point out that this is the highlight of the story and that with so much packed into one sentence, the reader might miss how significant it is. You could play around with different ways to put these ideas into two or three sentences instead of just one.

 

Conventions: You mentioned one thing already: he needs to use proper paragraph form by indenting at the beginning of each paragraph. The use of the name "Edward" I would also consider a conventions issue. It's easy to fix and my ds seems to enjoy learning the rules for grown-up writing. On the other hand, it will come up in the future so it's a correction you can easily save for another paper if you're approaching the "too many corrections" line. Personally, I would spend a little time looking at this sentence:

He noticed that fewer milkmaids got smallpox instead, they got cowpox.

It has a run-on error that could be fixed a number of different ways. Maybe a semi-colon would be fun to talk about here?

Finally the government accepted to the vaccine

I don't like the "accepted to" in this sentence. Different verb, maybe? Finally, there's a typo in the last sentence (nuber). I would either point it out or ask him to hunt for it, depending on frustration level.

[Catherine]

I have not tried to break down the editing process into the four conventions you mention, but it is a very good idea. As is using humor, and staying closer by when he is working. He is actually remarkably independent for his age, IMO, but I realize I need to butt in while he is working more, to check in and elicit questions.

 

On the same topic, do any of you allow your logic stage students to type these assignments? I know my ds would strongly prefer to type, because it makes the editing process easier, and he has a real difficulty with writing out his thoughts. OTOH, I am reluctant to allow typing a lot at this age, because I believe he needs to be able to handwrite fluently and quickly when taking notes, and perhaps in his work, depending on what he does for a living in the future.

 

Thank you again so much for your helpful comments!!

[Woodland Mist Academy]

On the same topic, do any of you allow your logic stage students to type these assignments?

 

Absolutely! My dd types almost all of them. :)

[Capt_Uhura]

I'm wondering the same thing. My son writes painfully slow in cursive. He goes much faster typing but I wonder about the SAT where he'll have to be able to write quickly and legibly.

 

Capt Uhura

[JadeOrchidSong]

Ds9.9, Week 6 Day 4

 

The Titanic

The first step to the Titanic’s sinking was when it hit a massive iceberg. It was first sighted at around 11:40 PM but the officers on board told the passengers there was no danger. They remarked, “Nothing, no, nothing at all, just an iceberg.â€

But five compartments soon began to fill with water. Soon the sixth was flooding. The pumps that were intact didn’t pump all the water out. Soon 22,000 tons of water were flooding the Titanic each hour!

Finally, the first lifeboat launched, but passengers weren’t willing to leave the ship. But when the deck began to tilt more and more passengers were eager to escape. The lifeboats began to get overloaded and the last lifeboat left at 2:05. Soon afterwards, the electricity failed and the boat sank.

Only 711 of the 2,222 people that boarded the Titanic survived. A ship called Carpathia arrived at 4:10 AM. The new ship picked up passengers until 8:50 AM and left for New York right afterwards.

[JadeOrchidSong]

Ds9.9 Week 5 Day 4

 

Jenner’s Discoveries about Smallpox

 

Jenner started his investigations with smallpox when he first noticed that milk maids weren’t getting smallpox. Instead, they were getting cowpox. Cowpox gave cows blisters. The milk maids that milked them sometimes got blisters on their arms! Cowpox gave them a fever for four days! Many of the local people thought that cowpox was a sickness that made them not able to catch smallpox.

Furthermore, he discovered two kinds of cowpox, kept track of the out breaks and recognized that only one form gave immunity.

Next, Jenner tried his theory on an eight year old named James Phillips. He applied cowpox puss on him and then tried to give him smallpox. But he couldn’t because his theory was true. Jenner tried to do it on 23 other times on other patients and it always worked! He now was sure that his theory was correct!

[JadeOrchidSong]

Ds9.9 Alexander the Great

 

Alexander’s Invasions

Alexander’s first invasion happened after he traveled to Gordium. He was told a myth about a certain Gordian knot and heard that whoever untied it would be king of the world; then he sliced it.

Soon afterwards he defeated Darius at the war of Issus. Darius fled without taking his wife, mother, and daughters. But Alexander treated them with respect.

Next he invaded Egypt and became Pharaoh. Furthermore he founded Alexandria.

Once again he attacked Darius and defeated him at Hugamela in witch Darius fled a second time He also conquered Babylon and Susai. Darius himself was killed by Bessus, his own kinsman.

Afterwards, he traveled over the Indus river then fought against Porus and a bunch of war elephants. But Alexander’s army didn’t want to go any more. So Alexander furiously thought it over in his tent. He finally resolved to go home.

[JadeOrchidSong]

I posted three of my son's assignments. Please take a look and tell me what you think. I would love to see some feedback.

[Mom-ninja.]

aomom, my ds just did the Jenner assignment. I'll post his. It's his second writing.

 

I do have a question. My ds has not yet made it to 150+ words. This writing is 130. Do I try and have him expand it more or leave it? Here it is:

 

 

 

In the beginning smallpox killed millions of people. Doctors gave people mild doses of smallpox but these doses sometimes killed the patients.

Jenner was a doctor in the late 1700s. He saw that milkmaids that had had cowpox never got smallpox. Then Jenner looked at the simularetes between smallpox and cowpox and found only one form of cowpox gave immunity to smallpox.

James Phipps was the first person to receive Jenner's vaccine. Jenner cut James's arm and put cowpox pus on the cut. James got a little sick but recovered quickly. When he got better Jenner tried giving James a moderate case of smallpox but he was immune.

Jenner gave his vaccine to 23 other people and it worked. He didn't exactly know why his vaccine worked but it did.

[LibraryLover]

I like this thread. :)

[Serenade]

I like this thread. :)

 

 

I like it, too, so I thought I'd bump it since I had a hard time finding it. I don't know if I lost my subscription when the forums changed.

 

Here's my son's version of the Titanic exercise. He just turned 13 and is in 7th grade. He's been a reluctant writer up until we discovered WWS.

 

Iceberg spotted! Looming ahead was a giant iceberg, on a collision course with the RMS Titanic! The ship's lookouts phoned William Murdoch, first officer, who then ordered the Titanic to quickly turn to port. But then, unfortunately, the ship collided with the iceberg only 37 seconds after the sighting. The sharp edge of the iceberg cut a huge gash across the starboard side of the ship. Water then began to fill the ship, about 24,000 tons per hour. The pumps, though, could only pump 2,000 tons out of the ship per hour, so the Titanic was getting heavier with water every second. Distress rockets were launched, and radio operators sent SOS signals. "We have struck an iceberg. Badly damaged. Rush aid," Logan Marshall signaled. The nearest ship, Carpathia, answered, but unfortunately it was 4 hours away. The ship began to tilt, and the stern started to rise above the water. The water pressure was so strong that the ship split in half, and the bow sank. The stern, though, floated back up, but then later sank, too. The Titanic, once such a majestic ship, had finally sunk.

 

I had him rewrite it several times, and while I think it would have benefited from yet another revision, I thought it was time to let it go. ;) I'm wondering how others handle the revision process. Do you revise a set number of times? Do you not revise at all? I tend to pick and choose the assignments to revise so that I don't wear him down, but sometimes I still get carried away...

[Homeschooling Again]

DS 10 (5th grade) Week 8, Day 3: room description

 

Ghost story (first try):

The room was large the windows were long and high with an arch at the top and curtains. The floor boards were squeaky. The sun was setting and the red adn gold light did not reach the corners of the room.

 

I realized I needed to talk him through this assignment rather than letting him do it all on his own. We talked about what would make the room scary/gloomy. I asked leading questions about the state of the furniture and windows and after some frustration, here's what he came up with:

The big room was dark and gloomy, and had not been cleaned in years. There was no light coming into the corners of the room. Faintly the light from the sunset is coming in through the broken windows whose ripped curtains are billowing from the wind.

 

I decided that I'd leave off editing as he was feeling rather frustrated and I also waited another day to assign the other description exercise.

 

Romantic setting:

The room was grand with a high ceiling like a church. The windows were high with an arch at the top and long, drapey, shiny curtains looking like a wedding gown. The red and gold light from the setting sun illuminated the room.

 

This time we began by talking about how this room could add to the feeling of romance, and he seemed to like the idea of comparing the room to a church and describing the curtains like a wedding dress. I feel like this assignment was too advanced for him, though he's been coming along just fine so far. I'm looking to give him a couple of building-block assignments before going on to the next assignment (describing the castle). My thought is to give him scenarios from books we've read and ask him to describe the place setting. For example, providing him with a bare bones description of the the kennel Lassie lived in before she escaped to return to her boy and having him re-write it to describe it from Lassie's point of view. Something like "The kennel was a rectangular patch of ground, about 15' X 5'. It was surrounded by a 6' chainlink fence." (Note, I can't quite recall how it was described in the book; this is my best recollection!) This would be a shorter assignment, but he could do two or three before going on to describe the castle.

 

Any feedback would be helpful.

[Allison TX]

I would love some feedback on my son's WWS paper on Kepler. He is in 8th grade and has used IEW for years. WWS started out easy for him, but quickly became challenging. (We started WWS at the beginning of the year and then put it aside for a couple months, so we're not too far into it yet.)

Thanks so much!

 

 

 

During the 1600’s, many astronomers believed in a theory called Geocentrism. This was the belief that Earth was in the middle of the solar system. However, Johannes Kepler believed in Heliocentrism. This theory was that the Sun was in the middle of the solar system.

 

After studying Heliocentrism at university, Kepler was employed as an assistant to an astronomer named Tycho Brahe, who passed on many of his ideas to Kepler. They studied the orbits of planets such as Mars. Kepler tried and failed forty times over a period of five years to find a mathematical explanation for the movement of Mars. Finally, in 1605, he realized that Mar’s orbit was an ellipse.

 

 

By 1609, he published his work in Astronomia Nova. Kepler wrote that all planets move in elliptical orbits, and move faster when closer to the Sun. “The planetary orbit is elliptical and the Sun, the source of movement, is at one of the foci of this ellipse,†Kepler stated.

[Chrysalis Academy]

WWS Week 23, Literary Analysis of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

 

Ok, I have to say a big thank you to Colleen & Susan for hashing this out on the big WWS thread, because even after reading their discussion of this assignment, I still have to say it was rather hard to explain to dd what she was meant to do - she had a really hard time seeing the purpose of writing the summary, and then writing the analysis, and then putting them together. Her summary had included a description of the main characters, what they wanted, and the major conflict, so it felt very redundant. I'm wondering how others fared with this assignment? I get the idea that SWB wants the student to understand the distinction between writing a summary and writing a literary analysis, and that's what I tried to focus on, but I suspect dd just kind of resents feeling like she was just made to jump through unnecessary hoops . . . Anyway, here is what she came up with:

 

 

Rikki-Tikki the mongoose moved into a house where a boy named Teddy and his parents lived. In the garden lived two evil cobras named Nag and Nagaina. Rikki-Tikki wanted to kill the terror-spreading snakes to protect the people who adopted him. Nag and Nagaina wanted to kill the people so that Rikki would go away and their soon-to-hatch eggs would be safe.

Nag went into the bathroom to kill the man, and Rikki-Tikki killed him. Then Rikki found Nagaina’s eggs, and smashed all but one. When he heard that Nagaina was on the porch about to kill Teddy, he ran there with the last egg still in his mouth. When Nagaina saw Rikki with the last egg, she grabbed it and slithered out to the garden, where Rikki killed her.

 

 

It honestly doesn't read much differently than her original summary did . . . are we missing something? Should she have focused more on Nagaina's desire for revenge or something?

[Chrysalis Academy]

Week 24, Literary Analysis

 

My dd10 had a hard time understanding this story when she first read it. Because she wasn't familiar with the currency, and doesn't really understand debt, interest, etc. (lucky kid) she had a hard time following the consequences of the choice to borrow money to replace the necklace, and the difference between the value of the fake and the one that Mme Loisel replaced. But, once we discussed it, she got it, and she actually really enjoyed this assignment.

 

I don't see a lot of posts of other LA assignments - I hope others will post their dc's efforts! It's very helpful to read what other kids are writing.

 

 

 

 

“The Necklace†by Guy du Maupassant

 

 

Madame Loisel was invited to a ball, but she had no jewelry to wear. She went to her friend and asked to borrow a diamond necklace. Upon returning from the ball she realized she had lost it. After searching in vain, she decided to replace it secretly, but had to borrow a huge sum of money to pay for it. After ten long years of working to pay off the debt, she decided to tell her friend about the necklace. Upon hearing this, her friend told her that the necklace was fake and hardly worth anything at all.

Madame Loisel wanted to be rich and admired. She borrowed the necklace so that people at the ball would think she was rich. She didn’t want to admit to her friend that the necklace was lost because she was too proud and embarrassed. Madame Loisel’s proud choice to replace the necklace instead of admitting that it was lost caused her to lose all hope of ever being rich and admired, as she had always desired.

[Sleep-Deprived]

Week 23, Literary Analysis of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

 

My ds 10 actually enjoyed this lesson quite a bit...it has helped his attitude SO MUCH to let him type his assignments on the computer. His resistance to editing has dropped to almost zero.

 

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is the story of a mongoose, who is found by a boy, Teddy, and his parents. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, the hero of the story is young and loyal, with an irresistible desire to kill snakes. Nag and Nagaina are cobras, natural enemies of the mongoose. The cobras live in a garden, and want to kill the people who own the garden, so that their soon-to-hatch eggs will not be bothered.

 

After a flood, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi moves in with the family that owns the garden. The snakes realize that the mongoose will protect the family, and determine they will have to fight Rikki to get their wish.

 

Rikki intends to kill the snakes, and his first kill is Nag and Nagaina's son, Karait. Soon after, Rikki follows Nag-as he intends to kill the father of the family-into the bathroom, and fights him. The man, hearing the noise, gets his gun and shoots Nag. Later, Nagaina goes into the house to kill the family for revenge, but Rikki destroys all but one of her eggs, and threatens to crush the last egg if she bites anyone. Anxious to save her last egg, Nagaina moves away from Teddy, grabs the egg, and slithers rapidly toward her hole. Rikki kills Nagaina inside the hole, and so the race of snakes in that garden was ended.

 

--- On a separate note, does anyone have their kiddos put a header on the assignments? If you do, where does it go? When my son writes by hand, I've just had him write in the upper right hand corner (name, date, WWS and week). Now that he is typing his assignments, I would like him to use a widely acceptable format, but I don't know what that is.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Week 26, Literary Analysis essay, by dd10, 5th grade

 

 

Anne of Green Gables

 

 

When Anne, a ten year old girl who was living in an orphanage, came to Green Gables instead of a boy, Marilla, the owner, wanted to send her back. When Anne heard this, she was in “the depths of despair,†for she had been excited for days about finally having a home. After Anne had been sent to bed, Matthew, Marilla’s brother, said that he would be happy if Anne could stay, and that a good home might help Anne. â€We might be some good to her,†he said.

Anne wanted to stay at Green Gables because she had never had a home before, and she wanted one more than anything. Marilla didn’t want her to stay, because she was not a boy. Marilla wanted a boy because Matthew was getting older and would benefit from some help on the farm.

Not only did Marilla want a boy, but she couldn’t imagine living with such an exuberant and melodramatic little girl. Marilla wanted peace and quiet in the house, and to be alone. Anne was noisy and unpredictable, and would keep Marilla from having the quiet life she wanted. When Matthew offered to hire help so Anne could be company for Marilla, Marilla said, “I’m not suffering for company.â€

Even though Matthew wanted Anne to stay, he didn’t demand it, but gently suggested it in a way that made Marilla doubt her decision to send Anne back. Although Marilla went to bed “frowning most resolutely,†she was reconsidering her decision.

[Colleen in NS]

I know you wrote this a month ago, but my attention was directed towards it this evening, and I see you did not get any feedback yet. Hope I can help!

 

WWS Week 23, Literary Analysis of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

 

Ok, I have to say a big thank you to Colleen & Susan for hashing this out on the big WWS thread, because even after reading their discussion of this assignment, I still have to say it was rather hard to explain to dd what she was meant to do - she had a really hard time seeing the purpose of writing the summary, and then writing the analysis, and then putting them together. Her summary had included a description of the main characters, what they wanted, and the major conflict, so it felt very redundant. I'm wondering how others fared with this assignment? I get the idea that SWB wants the student to understand the distinction between writing a summary and writing a literary analysis, and that's what I tried to focus on, I think you are right - read the first sentence in the IG in the "HOW TO HELP THE STUDENT WITH STEP THREE" section. but I suspect dd just kind of resents feeling like she was just made to jump through unnecessary hoops . . . Anyway, here is what she came up with:

 

 

 

Rikki-Tikki the mongoose moved into a house where a boy named Teddy and his parents lived. In the garden lived two evil cobras named Nag and Nagaina. Rikki-Tikki wanted to kill the terror-spreading snakes to protect the people who adopted him. Nag and Nagaina wanted to kill the people so that Rikki would go away and their soon-to-hatch eggs would be safe.

 

Nag went into the bathroom to kill the man, and Rikki-Tikki killed him. Then Rikki found Nagaina’s eggs, and smashed all but one. When he heard that Nagaina was on the porch about to kill Teddy, he ran there with the last egg still in his mouth. When Nagaina saw Rikki with the last egg, she grabbed it and slithered out to the garden, where Rikki killed her.

 

 

It honestly doesn't read much differently than her original summary did . . . are we missing something? Should she have focused more on Nagaina's desire for revenge or something?

 

 

About what I bolded above - to me, that is an analysis, not a straight summary of "what happened?" Have a look again at the questions in the IG section for "HOW TO HELP THE STUDENT WITH STEP ONE." The questions are at the end of that section. Those questions are all about *what* happened, not character descriptions or why things happened.

 

Now, notice what Step Three tells the student: "Your narrative summary might have mentioned what the cobras wanted...but it could still be a perfectly good narrative summary if you didn't mention..."

 

What might help is to go back and ask your daughter those questions in the IG for Step One, and have her write a new summary based on those answers. Tell her this time not to write anything that answers WHY or that talks about what the characters wanted. Then maybe the difference between summary and analysis will become clearer to her. Make it clear that summary is about WHAT happened (but could contain descriptions), and analysis is about WHY it happened.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Thanks, Colleen. I see what you mean. I guess in this particular story it was harder, because what they did and what they wanted was so closely connected - it would have felt awkward to her to try and talk about what happened in the story and leave the why out. It was much easier to see the disctinction in The Necklace and the Anne of Green Gables selections.

 

I have kind of been complaining about the LA assignments a little bit . . . :leaving: My dd and I have very similar learning styles, and both find it really hard to do something without understanding the "why" of it, or how it all comes together. I keep reading SaDonna's posts, where she says that you have to just trust the process, and that it *does* all come together by the end, so I'm trying to keep the faith. I think one thing that will help is if she can read some model literary essays, so she can understand what the goal is. We just finished reading Huck Finn, and she wrote about it, so if I can find a few well-done analyses of that, it might be a really good thing for her to see.

[Colleen in NS]

It was much easier to see the disctinction in The Necklace and the Anne of Green Gables selections.

 

... I keep reading SaDonna's posts, where she says that you have to just trust the process, and that it *does* all come together by the end, so I'm trying to keep the faith. ...

 

 

Glad it became clearer with the other stories!

 

And I agree with SaDonna on that point.

 

Good luck!

 

p.s. I'm a "need to know why" person, too. Which is probably why I asked all those questions last year to figure out this lesson.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Glad it became clearer with the other stories!

 

And I agree with SaDonna on that point.

 

Good luck!

 

p.s. I'm a "need to know why" person, too. Which is probably why I asked all those questions last year to figure out this lesson.

 

 

 

Yes, reading your discussion with SWB was so helpful! I would have been even more confused without it, so thanks! It seems like posting on this thread has dropped off some, and in case anyone is reading this, do post! I know not a lot of people comment or offer criticism, but it is really helpful (for me at least) to see what other kids are writing. It helps me center my expectations more realistically, and give better feedback!

[Catherine]

I'm following along and I appreciate all the recent postings. My ds just read The Necklace this week and I asked him the questions about it yesterday.

 

He got every single one wrong. School is SO frustrating for him at times because it seems like his intuition is very often wrong. It turns out that he did not fully understand the events of the story-he missed that Mme. Forestier did not recognize Mme. Loizel at the end, he couldn't tell me any of the details of what they had lost in trying to pay for the necklace, he didn't understand at all, even after explanation, how the same character could be the protagonist and antagonist. Once again I am feeling like WWS provides too little transition from basic to advanced, for my child. And he is not an idiot. He just needs what I would consider to be an average amount of hand-holding.

[Sleep-Deprived]

He just needs what I would consider to be an average amount of hand-holding.

 

Catherine, there have been two selections that I have found particularly challenging - one was the Hound of the Baskervilles and the other was The Necklace. My son actually kept the characters in The Necklace straight better than I did as we worked through it (and I had the Teacher's Guide). If every single week is a total challenge then I might slow down the pace, but if it is just a selection or two, I would press through and keep going.

 

As for the protagonist and antagonist being the same person, my son and I talked about that for a while using real-life examples of how people can behave as their own worst enemy (repeatedly making bad decisions). We also talked about how a person might escape that cycle. I don't know if that will be helpful, but maybe your son just needs a more concrete or "close to him" example. It might help to just talk through some of these concepts using books he has read and enjoyed.

 

Whether you need to press through or just slow down the pace, hang in there! I think most of us hit a wall now and then. :)

[Chrysalis Academy]

I'm following along and I appreciate all the recent postings. My ds just read The Necklace this week and I asked him the questions about it yesterday.

 

He got every single one wrong. School is SO frustrating for him at times because it seems like his intuition is very often wrong. It turns out that he did not fully understand the events of the story-he missed that Mme. Forestier did not recognize Mme. Loizel at the end, he couldn't tell me any of the details of what they had lost in trying to pay for the necklace, he didn't understand at all, even after explanation, how the same character could be the protagonist and antagonist. Once again I am feeling like WWS provides too little transition from basic to advanced, for my child. And he is not an idiot. He just needs what I would consider to be an average amount of hand-holding.

 

Catherine, I don't know if you saw this post of mine from the Logic Stage board. My dd didn't understand The Necklace after reading it on her own, either. Hopefully some of the responses might help you, they did help me:

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/457078-dd10-didnt-get-the-necklace-wws-literary-analysis-selection/

[Kim C]

WWS Week 14, Day 4:

 

 

Mars, the fourth planet from the sun, has a diameter of 4,200 miles --- roughly half the size of Earth. Its atmosphere is made of 95% carbon dioxide, 2.7% nitrogen, and 1.6% argon, with traces of oxygen, water vapor, and carbon monoxide. In short, not good for humans.

 

Suppose, however, that you are standing on the surface of Mars. The ground of this cold, dry desert world is covered in reddish dust. The dust has this color due to high levels of iron oxide. Occasionally the dust is whipped up into huge dust storms. There is no liquid water on the planet due to the planet’s frigid temperatures. Even now on the planet’s equator, in the middle of summer, it’s only 78 degrees Fahrenheit. Good thing it not winter, the HIGH would only be -230 degrees Fahrenheit. Look up and you will see a clear pink sky, soon to be followed by a clear night and an appearance from Phobos, one of the planet’s twin moons.

 

Phobos and Deimos are Mars’s twin moons. Through a telescope they appear as giant potatoes made of rock and ice. Phobos’s diameter is 13 miles, and it completes its orbit of Mars in seven and a half hours. Deimos has a circumference of 8 miles, and completes its orbit in 30 hours. All of these statistics are in sharp contrast to our moon, which has a diameter of 2,000 miles and which takes 27 days to orbit Earth.

[SFossum]

My dd is 13 and in 7th grade. We've been working through WWS 1 since January of 2012. Here's her composition on Julius Caesar (Caesar final) from Week 29, Day 4.

 

I used the rubric provided in WWS 1, but I didn't grade it. I find it difficult to be the teacher who gives the assignment and then the parent who helps the student comprehend the assignment and then again be the teacher who grades it.

 

With that in mind, I encouraged my dd to make sure she followed all of the instructions in the lesson. Sometimes I had her read them several times to ensure that she was adhering to them. I made her proofread her own work, and after she had done that, I addressed the mistakes that she had missed.

 

The Caesar.doc is her first composition for Week 29, Day 2, Step 3.

 

BTW, this assignment took over two weeks for her to complete.

 

I would love feedback. :001_smile:

Caesar final.doc

Caesar.doc

[happycc]

Last year I tried WWS1 with one of my twin daughters who is now 11yrs old. We had just finished WWE2. 

It was an epic fail. She had a hard time reading the directions and did the entire essay wrong for the first week. 

So we stopped and just continued on to WWE3.

Now we are done with WWE3 and starting WWS1 with both of the twins. 

 

Twin 1 seems to be doing fine.

Twin 2 seems to have a hard time understanding the passage and of course her writing was completely wrong because she missed the whole point of the passage. Peter the Russian and the Turks one. 

 

Example of this : Peter wanted there to be merchants bringing goods from Russia to other parts of Russia but they couldn't because the turks was at war with them trying to take over their best port. Then Peter marched his army to the port and sent an arrow with a letter and it said they surrendered but the turks laughed because their ships with weapons could just sail to the fortress where they were staying. Peter then told his army to build ships. They attacked the turk and won their port. 

 

 

Now both of the twins seem to have a problem incorporating larger vocabulary in their writings. Their writing sounds so babyish and the samples in the books utilizes a lot of large vocabulary. What are your recommendations 1) what do do with Twin 2 not comprehending the reading passages 2) not utilizing better vocabulary in their writing. We are using Caesar's English for vocabulary but they don;t seem to be using the vocabulary in their writing. 

 

Example of this after we went over the story passage but now the vocabulary is really poor:

Peter the Great wanted his merchant ships to visit west but he needed a port to do it. Peter wanted the port of Azov, but it belonged to the turks, so he laid a seige around the port and he failed. Then the Russians made a navy and attacked Turks. The Turks surrendered and he got the the port. 

 

1) She knows she should be capitalizing proper nouns.

2) She knows she should put commas before conjunctions. 

[zenjenn]

I almost would like to see a separate thread for each week. Is that nuts? I like seeing the other assignments that are currently being done by my daughter.

 

Here is daughter's Week 7 Writing assignment. 5th grade, just turned 11 yrs old, after about 3 revisions. There is still more I'd fix, but I think three iterations of revision is where I'm stopping for now, just to keep her from getting discouraged.

 

    The Sinking of the Titanic

                                   

  Once there was a ship called the Titanic. People called it unsinkable, but they were wrong.

 

  Before the sinking of the ship, an iceberg was sighted ahead at 11:40 PM. The ship crashed into the iceberg thirty-seven seconds after sighting.  Soon the ship began to flood. 24,000 tons of water flooded in per hour. The officer on the ship told passengers that there was nothing to worry about.                       

    

   Then an officer named Charles Light asked the captain if he could start filling lifeboats with women and children. Lifeboats started getting filled with women and children at 12:25 AM.  After that distress signals were sent out at 12:50 AM. Other ships got the signal, but were too far away to help. One boat called the Carpathia replied, but it was four hours away.

 

 Afterwards lifeboats started getting sent out at 1:10 AM. Many passengers did not want to leave the ship. The boat began to tilt, and more people left the ship. Afterwards the lifeboats were too full. The last lifeboats were sent out. Shortly after that the ship started sinking between 2:05 and 2:20 AM. Water broke the windows and started flooding in. the ship sank at 2:20 AM. Only one lifeboat came back for the people in the water.

 

 Finally the Carpathia came at 4:10 AM. The Carpathia picked up people until 8:50. The Carpathia set course to New York at 8:50 AM.

[Stuart]

Age 10 boy Week 11 Ivan the Terrible I think he did a nice job. Would like some others opinions.

 

Ivan IV was crowned Emperor of Russia in 1547.He was the first Russian ruler to be called Tsar, which is the Russian word for Caesar (an old roman title.)

He fought with the Mongols and his northern neighbors to enlarge his kingdom. He also conquered the Tartar ( Turkish people group) city of Kazan in 1552. That same year he ordered the construction of a new church.

Construction on this new church began in 1555 and went on until 1679, long after Ivan's death. The church is called Saint Basil's Cathedral and still stands today. It is most vivid building in Moscow. The intricate colors and designs pop like a firework. The many domes have amazing patterns that make them look like hot air balloons, ice cream cones, and baskets. The center tower looks as if it was trying to touch heaven itself. It is a very beautiful building built by a tyrant.

In Russia, Ivan IV was ruthless. He was given the name "Terrible" because of his treatment of wrong doers. The newly dubbed Ivan the Terrible formed a secret police to hunt out his enemies. He wrote, “If a Tsar's subjects do not obey him they will forever be at war with one another." During the "reign of terror" the secret police killed thousands of innocent people, the Tsar suffered from mental breakdown, and Ivan killed his own son. Ivan also attacked his own city of Novgorod and massacred the population.

Finally, in 1584, Ivan the Terrible died. He had been ill for weeks. He died suddenly while he was getting ready to play chess. He left his country poorer and in chaos.

Ivan the Terrible left his mark on Russia. Today, Saint Basil's Cathedral still stands, tall and proud, reminding people of a time when Russia was ruled by a madman.

[sillymommy]

DS age 10 5th Grade Week 6 Day 4 Titanic

 

First Draft:

The lifeboats were reddy gest after midnight on the Titanic. Women and childrn got on the lifeboats at 12:25 am. They lanched the first lifeboat at 1:10 am. The first boats were only 1/4 of the whay full. Later, lifeboats were cramed with people.

 

Captain Smith said, "You have done your duty, boys. Now every man for him self." He did not leave his ship. Electricity stoped at 2:18 am. The Titanic split in half. Later, only one lifeboat surched for people in the water.

 

Final draft:

Captain Smith told the crew to get the lifeboats ready because he knew the Titanic was sinking. The lifeboats were ready just after midnight. Women and children got on the lifeboats at 12:25 am. they launched the first lifeboat at 1:10am. The first boats were on a quarter of the way full. Later, lifeboats were crammed with people. Captain Smith told the crew, "You have done your duty, boys. Now every man for himself." He did not leave his ship. Electricity stopped at 2:18 am. The Titanic split in half. Later, only one lifeboat searched for people in the water.

 

I honestly don't know what to expect from a 5th grader. He's a reluctant writer, and it was tough to get this much out of him. It feels very disconnected to me, but He did follow the chronological order of the 3 main topics he chose. I hesitate to correct *everything* for fear of making the process more painful...Suggestions welcome!

 

 

[SFossum]

This is my dd's Week 36, WWS 1 compostion.  She is 13 years old.  Since nanomedicine for cancer is currently being developed she only used the Scientific Description topos.  The assignment is supposed to be 1,000 words.  She only has 665.  What could she add to make it longer or do you think it's complete?

 

What is nanotechnology?  Nanotechnology is technology on a nano-size scale.  Today, many researchers are using nanotechnology in medicine.  They are mainly using it find a cure for cancer.  There are many different things scientists are working on.  Some scientists are making quantum dots that will stick to cancer sells and will glow when in light.  Others are using hyperthermia therapy, which will zap the cancer cells with heat.  There are scientists that are creating immune machines that will find cancer cells and destroy them.  Researchers are also working with iron oxide nanoparticles to be used in MRI imaging.

            Shuming Nie, a professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, is working with quantum dots to help locate cancer.  Quantum dots are beacons, about 10-nanometers in size.  The beacons are made out off gobstoppers, which are “nanomatryshka dolls.â€[1]  The beacons received the name quantum dots because at the center of the probe is a small dot, about 5-nanometers in diameter, called a quantum dot.  He coated the quantum dots with a Velcro that sticks to cancer tumors. 

            When the quantum dots are placed under a light they glow.  As an experiment, human prostate cancer was injected into a rat, along with the quantum dots.  An x-ray was then done of the rat and compared to an x-ray of another rat.  The diseased rat’s x-ray was glowing where the cancer tumor was.  â€œA bright orange…glow emanated from the point where they had injected the human prostate cancer.â€[2]

            Researchers are trying to use hyperthermia therapy to destroy cancer cells.  “Hyperthermia therapy raises the temperature of diseased tissue, such as cancer tumors, to kill it off.â€[3]  Gold nanoparticles are being used for hyperthermia therapy because gold is efficient in for changing light to heat.  The two types that are being used the most are gold nanorods and nanoshells.  Gold nanorods are small, solid gold cylinders.  Researchers use different sizes of nanorods so they “can change the wavelength of light that the nanorods absorb.â€[4]   Nanoshells are spheres made out of silicon dioxide and are covered in gold.  Different thicknesses of nanoshells absorb different wavelengths of light.  The heat from the gold nanoparticles will zap the cancer tumor and destroy it, almost like a laser.

            The National Cancer Institute is working on making nanomachines that will find, identify, and kill the cancer.  After the virus has been diagnosed, a doctor can program the immune machines with medicine and send them into the bloodstream.  When the immune machines have released all the medicine, they will decompose and leave the body with the other waste.  Immune machines can also be used to identify and destroy cancer cells.  “Destroying every cancer cell will cure the cancer.â€[5]  Experiments were done and the nanomachines worked exactly like the scientists thought they would.

            MRI imaging is an important part in identifying cancer cells before they become tumors.  MRI machines use the hydrogen atoms in organs to get an image of them.  Researchers are looking for a way to make MRI imaging clearer by using nanotechnology.  To enhance the MRI image, they are using iron oxide nanoparticles.  In theory, the iron oxide nanoparticles attach to the cancer cells and the MRI machine would focus on them.  The image would be of just the cancerous organ not all of the organs.  “You get a better MRI image if paramagnetic nanoparticles are attached to the object your imaging.â€[6]

            In conclusion, nanotechnology is becoming an important part of trying to find cures for cancer.  Though researchers might be doing more, the government is shut down right now so not all of the information can be found.  Quantum dots are helping to find the cancer cells.  MRI imaging is being improved to have a crisper image.  If the MRI image is crisper, cancer cells can be seen easier.  Hyperthermia therapy kills the cancer cells easily, without killing other cells too.  Immune machines are programmed to find, identify, and kill just the cancer cells so, like hyperthermia therapy, other cells aren’t killed in the process.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

 

[RootAnn]

Week 12, Day 4 Assignment

Dd#1 (11 yrs old) - completely unedited 1st draft

As others have pointed out in this thread and others, this assignment caused some pain for my dd. She expressed vehement angst that she wouldn't be able to get it up to 200 words, couldn't do the assignment because it was too hard, and why did she have to learn how to write anyway?! She ended up with 208 - but definitely had to consult a couple other books to get more ideas. I ended up writing one too.

 

DH was a reluctant witness to her fit, so I put three or four other examples from here together with mine and dd's together in one document so he could see how different people wrote from the directions. I also put the student assignment list & the rubric in front of him so he could gauge for himself how she did. I also didn't tell him which one was hers or mine until later.  ;)  Anyway, it was helpful for him to see how hers turned out & how others her age completed the assignment. So - thank you to all who posted & keep posting assignments.

-------------------

A composite volcano can also be called a stratovolcano. A composite volcano resembles a tree in summer surrounded by a many layered torte cake. Where the roots would be, there lies a magma chamber, full of melted rock. Inside the magma chamber the temperature is between 600 degrees Celsius and 1,200 degrees Celsius. Certain rocks, if they fell in there would melt like butter for popcorn in a pan.

The trunk is a conduit the magma erupts through if the chamber is squeezed. The top leafy branches are the ash cloud of volcanic debris. Volcanic debris is too heavy to stay in a high altitude for very long. The torte cake is the layers of ash and lava that hepl build uo the mountain. The layers of ash and lava helped give the volcano its name, compsite, because it is composed of lava, ash, and magma. It gets the layers of lava and ash from when it explodes. When it explodes, the pyroclastic materal is followed by a queiter flow of lava. That form the alternating layers.

Mount Fuji is probably one of the most known composite volcanos there are. Some composite volcanos in the United States are Mount Hood, Mount Rainier, Mount Shasta, and Mount St. Helens. 

[TarynB]

^^^ Spam reported.

[pooh bear]

Week 24 assignment by DS who is 13.

 

Madame Loisel receives an invitation to a ball, but she has no fine clothes or jewelry, so she borrows a diamond necklace from her friend. She has a great time at the ball, but as she is coming home, she loses the necklace. Her embarrassment stops her from telling her friend she lost the necklace. She takes out loans to pay for a new necklace, as diamond necklaces are very expensive. She ends up selling all of her possessions and working hard for ten years to pay back the loans she took out. When she meets her friend after all that time, she finds out the necklace she borrowed was a fake.

 

She wants to be rich, admired, and sought after. When she receives the invitation to the ball, she has a chance to look  both beautiful, and rich.

 

After having a great time at the ball, she loses the necklace. She is too embarrassed by the loss to tell her friend. She gives up all of her possessions in order to replace the necklace.

 

Because Mme. Loisel was too proud to tell her friend she lost the necklace, she had to work hard for ten years, causing her to grow worn out and old before her time, just to replace a necklace that turned out to be a fake.
 

 

 

[Kidlit]

Thank you all for taking the time to post your children's compositions. I'm currently using WWE 4 with my 9 year old daughter, but I'm thinking ahead to next year and wondering if I want to go ahead into WWS or do something else for 5th and come back to it later. Thoughts?

[Chrysalis Academy]

I'd vote for doing something else in 5th and coming back to it in 6th.

[SFossum]

Hope is the word,

 

I think it depends upon your dd's maturity and interest level.  Does she know how to take notes and write summaries based on her notes?  Can she use a thesaerus and dictionary on her own?  What is her reading comprehension level?

[Alice]

Thank you all for taking the time to post your children's compositions. I'm currently using WWE 4 with my 9 year old daughter, but I'm thinking ahead to next year and wondering if I want to go ahead into WWS or do something else for 5th and come back to it later. Thoughts?

 

Hi Amy! 

 

What we are doing is to do it in 5th but to do it slowly. We typically take two weeks per each “Weekâ€. Usually I have him do Days 1-3 one week and Day 4 the second week. For the part we are on, Day 1 is still narration, Day 2 is outlining and Day 3 is learning about a particular topoi. It’s not a lot of writing on any of those days and he can do each in one day. Day 4 is usually a more challenging assignment for my reluctant writer so I have him do it over a week, usually it ends up being at least 2 drafts, sometimes three. 

 

My plan is to take 2 years to finish. I think you could also just wait until 6th but for my son the step-by-step approach of WWS works well and I’m seeing good results so I wanted to stick with it. 

 

Doing it slowly has also allowed me to add in some other things, like writing assignments from what he is reading. 

[Aloha2U]

Thank you all for taking the time to post your children's compositions. I'm currently using WWE 4 with my 9 year old daughter, but I'm thinking ahead to next year and wondering if I want to go ahead into WWS or do something else for 5th and come back to it later. Thoughts?

 

Perhaps CAP's Writing & Rhetoric program?

 

My little man worked through the 1st half of WWE 4 during the second semester of 3rd grade—last year. We began this year completing W&R Books 1-Fable and 2-Narrations during our first semester, and now he's finishing out his 4th grade year with the 2nd half of WWE 4. I have WWS 1 ready and waiting on the shelf to begin our 5th grade year, but I'm not sure yet if that's how we'll proceed.

 

W&R's Book 3 will be released in the spring, Book 4 in the summer, so it's quite possible that we'll attempt to complete both books during the first semester of 5th grade, and then move into WWS 1 during the second semester, or whenever he's completed W&R 3 and 4. Just food for thought.

[Kidlit]

Thanks, Alice and SFossum. I have much to think over before next year! (Isn't it a little weird, Alice, to be chatting here? ;-)

[Kidlit]

Thanks, CMama, for throwing another suggestion into the mix. The only other writing programs I've even looked at even a little bit are IEW and Bravewriter. I know there are others out there, but that's the extent of my knowledge.